Australia was able to preserve the World Heritage Site status for its renowned Great Barrier Reef, but only for until 2014. And unless Canberra can present concrete ways and measures to satisfy UNESCO on how it plans to protect the reef, the World Heritage Site status could easily be changed and included into the body's list of endangered places next year.

Although it acknowledged Australia has made some progress in protecting the reef, "some issues still need to be addressed more forcefully," Marc Patry, program specialist at the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, said during the body's 37th session in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Mr Patry finds the reef's situation as "complicated" given the abundance of the natural resources in the area which are actually an "obstacle" to its conservation.

"The UNESCO indicated that they don't feel enough is being done by Australian governments. They haven't seen a policy commitment to actually reduce impact of port development, they haven't seen a commitment to the protection of the most pristine areas like Keppel Bay and the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef, and they haven't seen a clear plan for how to stop the impacts of development and manage the Reef overall," Felicity Wishart from the Australian Marine Conservation Society, who was present during the meeting, told ABC News.

As a prerequisite to maintain the World Heritage Site status, which the Great Barrier Reef had enjoyed since 1981, the UNESCO has told the state government of Queensland, where the reef is located, as well as the federal government that they have been put on notice.

"The UNESCO committee is essentially saying: 'things aren't good enough, you have to do better'," Ms Wishart said.

"They have 12 months or until June 2014 to take these recommendations seriously or risk the Great Barrier Reef being listed on the World Heritage list of shame," Richard Leck, WWF Great Barrier Reef spokesman and who also attended the committee meeting, said.

"The government did commit to what's called a strategic assessment, which is sort of like a grand plan for looking at managing the Reef and all the different impacts," Ms Wishart said.

"The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has done a lot of work that we're aware of with good consultation with the community for their part of that plan, which is the marine component."

However, she said they have yet to see some details coming right from the Queensland Government which is is responsible for the coastal side of that plan.

"The whole report was due out in March - it's still not out, we don't know where it's at. So the first thing we need to see is that put on the table," Ms Wishart said.